


What Happened to Living in the Now

by chewhy



Series: Soulmates [1]
Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Assisted Suicide, Character Death, Comedy, Dark Comedy, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, Gallows Humor, Humor, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Minor Character Death, Prison, Somehow turned into a political and social rant, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 13:36:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6660238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chewhy/pseuds/chewhy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your soulmate clock is actually a countdown of how long your soulmate has to live and holy shit you have to find your soulmate soon because your clock says you have three months left (for angst maybe). </p><p>main pairing: jackjae</p><p>from prompt on <a href="http://7fics.tumblr.com/">7fics</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	What Happened to Living in the Now

**Author's Note:**

> see original prompt [here](http://7fics.tumblr.com/post/143403141691/i-just-saw-the-soulmate-post-by-silentpeaches)

While soulmates appear at the center of every rom-com and capitalism thrives off of the aspect of couples and soulmates (along with Christmas and every other religious-turned-commercial holiday out there) what with the couple rings and clothes and engraved chalice sets out there, statistically speaking, only 2 in 5 people actually meet their soulmate, and of those, only a few really stay together for long. It’s typically hard to be with somebody who has a clock ticking down to the day you draw your last breath permanently etched into your skin. Well, the day you die or the day you break up. Which usually ends in death by suicide more often than not. 

 

Youngjae’s one of those lucky people who got to meet his soulmate. Or, at least he thinks he did. Sometime around clubs week in his first year of college, his timer activated. So, Youngjae’s guess is that he shook the person’s hand while trying to avoid the flyers being thrust in his face and then walked away, forgetting them forever in the crowd of people milling around the fair. 

 

Honestly, he’s not terribly concerned to find out when he dies, and he’s sure his soulmate isn’t either, so he lets it be and decides that if Fate _really_ wanted them to meet before either of their clocks hit zero, he’s sure it’ll happen. 

 

Youngjae _is_ a little concerned, though, as to why his timer still hasn’t settled down. Ever since that fateful September day, the numbers have been whirring around on his wrist, rather like one of those jackpot gambling machines you see in Vegas. (Not that Youngjae’s ever been to Vegas. Maybe his soulmate is a foreign exchange student?) Sometimes the numbers pause, sometimes at 5 minutes and sometimes at 5 decades, but it always moves back to its constant state of motion before Youngjae can even read the seconds position. Youngjae’s not sure if his soulmate is reckless as fuck or ill in some way, and really, statistically speaking, he’s not terribly keen to find out. He would know, he’s a Stats major. 

 

Meanwhile, Youngjae spends his days just… Passing, day by day. He does what his parents want him to do, and that’s really all there is. 

 

—

 

“Hey guys,” Youngjae says, sliding into his seat at the cafe table. 

 

“Hey!” Jinyoung greets brightly, adding on the customary greeting of “Did your ticker stop ticking yet?” before he goes back to giggling at whatever Jaebum was whispering in his ear. Youngjae just smiles and shakes his head, watching the two of them so wrapped up in each other. 

 

Sometimes, Youngjae’s a bit jealous at how freely and happily the two of them live their lives, and he wonders if it’s part of being soulmates, but then he remembers that they both only have two years left to live, and that must be why. Lucky them, not having to worry about finding a job after college. Their biggest worry is about how they’re going to die. 

 

“Hey, Youngjae,” Jinyoung begins, eyes glimmering with… Mischief? Happiness? “Jaebum and I are thinking that on the day our timers hit zero, we’ll go skydiving. At least then, we’ll go out in a blaze of glory, hmm?”

 

“That is,” Jaebum cuts in, “If we don’t die in a car crash on the way to the venue.”

 

No, Youngjae decides. It’s neither. The glimmer in Jinyoung’s eyes, in both his and Jaebum’s eyes is not mischief or happiness. It’s the spark of madness, the mania that replaces fear when facing the inevitable—their death. 

 

“Sure,” Youngjae says. “What kind of music do you want for your funeral?”

 

Maybe it’s a little morbid, a young couple planning a joint funeral and not a wedding or proposal event. But at least they have each other, down to the last three seconds.

 

On Jinyoung’s wrist, it reads 2 years, 3 months, 4 days, 5 minutes and 44 seconds. On Jaebum’s, 2 years, 3 months, 4 days, 5 minutes and 47 seconds. 

 

As Youngjae reassures them that he’ll play Balloons by TVXQ to commemorate how the couple met, he can only think of how much he’ll miss them when they’re gone. 

 

—

 

2 years and 4 months later, Youngjae sits on his bunk, and hopes that Jinyoung’s parents remembered to play Balloons. He wonders if maybe Jinyoung and Jaebum hadn’t been so focused on planning their death, they could have avoided it. 

 

Youngjae’s not sorry though. Well, not really sorry. He’s not sorry he helped them be together, down to the last 3 seconds, and he’s not that sorry that it landed him in prison. 

 

He is a little sorry that he didn’t get to oversee their funeral like he planned. He’s a little sorry that what he did to with good intentions is considered enough to keep him in solitary confinement. Although, he supposes he could have argued for more “quality living situations” if he’d acted a bit guiltier and repentant at the court hearings. 

 

Youngjae can’t really help it though. He’s a naturally smiley guy. And hey, who’s to argue of the soon to die soulmate couple want to go out with a bang? 

 

—

 

Okay, so maybe blowing up his friends wasn’t the best thought out idea, but it was the one the two had settled on, and Youngjae figured it would be easy enough to follow through. Anyways, skydiving was out of the option because Jinyoung’s not great with heights. Plus, Jinyoung liked the summer and Jaebum liked Jinyoung. They would have been a prefect match if they’d lasted any longer. 

 

—

 

Youngjae really thinks he’s going insane all by himself, but he’s been on really really good behavior and his lawyers put in a request way back when so it should be processed by now.

 

—

 

Youngjae decides he hates white. The white walls, the white ceiling. This is a prison, not a hospital, you guys. 

 

—

 

Youngjae can’t decide if he hates the way the numbers pulse red inside his wrist, mimicking his heartbeat. Or maybe it’s fed by his heartbeat. It is red. Blood. Beating. Heart. Soulmate. 

 

—

 

Oh. It stopped. Or, no. It hasn’t stopped quite yet, at least not in the way Jinyoung and Jaebum’s surely stopped. It’s… Settled. 3 months and 12 days. That’s a short amount of time. Youngjae doesn’t think he’ll be out of prison by then to say goodbye to his soulmate. Oh right. Youngjae’s not getting out. 

 

—

 

4 days, 4 hours, and 44 minutes later, the door slams open. Huh. That’s a lot of 4’s. Youngjae thinks that maybe it’s symbolic. Death. But no, it’s surely just a coincidence. Nobody believes in the old superstition anymore, anyways. 

 

“You’re being moved,” the guard gruffly mumbles. He seems like he’s trying to be authoritative, but can’t seem to muster the energy. He looks away from Youngjae’s smile. 

 

“Why?” Youngjae didn’t think that his request would really be accepted, considering the circumstances, in addition to how much time has already passed. 

 

The guard just sighs, and this time Youngjae thinks he recognizes pity. “Death row.” 

 

Huh. So it was symbolic. 

 

—

 

At least he’ll have company, Youngjae thinks as he considers the room that’s to be his last. 

 

“Hey!” a voice says brightly from behind him. Youngjae turns around quickly and sees a guy, shorter than him but more muscular. He’s holding his hand out. To shake? Youngjae never did get the chance to learn prison-bro customs, being a direct-to-solitary camper. “I’m Jackson, 3 months and 8 days. You are?”

 

“Youngjae,” he replies, deciding it’s a classic, non-criminal handshake. “You could very well be my soulmate.”

 

“Really? Sweet. How long do you have?” Jackson glosses over the soulmate remark. Honestly, Youngjae would have too. 

 

“4 months. Exactly.”

 

“Oh wow, then I think you really might be. You go to Hongdae University?” Jackson asks, eyebrows lifting up as he glances back down at his wrist.

 

“Yeah. Club fairs? 5 years ago?” Youngjae prods. If he’s going to spend the last months of his life like this, it can’t possibly be a coincidence. 

 

“No way, man! No way!” Jackson shouts, face lighting up with a bright big grin. Youngjae smiles back, and he thinks he knows why they’re soulmates. If their timers had a few more digits, he’s sure they could have had wonderful children with beautiful smiles. 

 

—

 

After the first day which is spent with introductions and more than 20 questions, Jackson asks, “So, what do soulmates do? Make out and shit?”

 

Youngjae smiles, “Maybe.” He grabs Jackson’s hand, “This too, I think.” Then he drops it. “Mostly, though, I think they plan for the future. For their death, and what they can cram in between.”

 

Jackson frowns at that, for maybe the first time Youngjae has seen and he reaches over and smoothes out his eyebrows. “That’s stupid. Gotta live in the now. Let’s just stick to the making out and holding hands, out deaths are already planned enough for us.”

 

“Okay,” Youngjae decides. That’s plenty enough for him. 

 

—

 

Jackson soon teaches Youngjae that because they are on death row, they have full immunity among the prisoners, and their soulmate status gives them immunity from the guards. Their last months are filled with chaos as they go around causing mayhem whenever possible. It’s the better alternative to listening to people cry, shout, whatever.

 

More often then not, though, they just hold hands and cuddle, sometimes making out and, well, Youngjae doesn’t want to die a virgin, at least not with this chance he’s been given. 

 

As the number on Youngjae’s wrist diminishes, the cuddling happens more often. 

 

—

 

“What are you going to ask for dinner?”

 

“Meat. And chocolate. A Choco Pie. The Orion kind. Lotte’s shit.”

 

“Just one?”

 

“Maybe four.”

 

—

 

“Youngjae. Are you awake Youngjae?”

 

“Yeah, whatsup?”

 

“I just want you to know, at least, if nobody else does. It was an accident. No, not even an accident. I’m completely innocent, you know? Wrong place, wrong time. I was training to be a professional athlete, you know? I don’t even like blood, I love people, I love human beings and life and living and I’m just really unlucky and you’ve got to know that Youngjae okay just promise me—“

 

“Sh, Jackson, it’s fine, I know. You’re innocent and I love you. You’ll be fine, don’t worry. Just wait 22 days and I’ll be with you, forever.”

 

“Okay. I’m innocent. I love you.”

 

—

 

They gave Jackson the Lotte kind.

 

—

 

Fuck fate. Fuck soulmates. Fuck timers. Jackson’s probably scared, and alone. Youngjae can’t make him wait another whole 18 days. Jinyoung only waited three seconds, why does Jackson have to wait 22 days? Four days is enough. Symbolic, too. 

 

—

 

Youngjae’s back in solitary, but this time it’s for his own safety, they tell him. Looks like Jackson really is his soulmate, after all. Even in death. 

 

—

 

“Did you know Jackson? Did you know his family by any chance?” Youngjae asks the guard next to him. It’s the same one that took him out of solitary the first time. _Yugyeom_ the tag reads. _60 years_ , his wrist reads. Lucky, that one. 

 

“I knew Jackson. His family’s contact is probably in the books. Why?”

 

“He was innocent, you know. Not like me, I’m not innocent, but I’m not guilty either. Jackson was really innocent, though. I wish somebody else could know. Somebody left alive.”

 

“I’ll know. Maybe his family will know, too,” the guard, _Yugyeom_ , says. Yes, it’s definitely pity in his voice. 

 

“Okay. That’s enough. Thank you.”

 

_I’m coming, Jackson._

**Author's Note:**

> talk to me on [tumblr](http://busanjeongin.tumblr/com/)/[twitter](https://twitter.com/2jaepg) both @2jaepg lmao
> 
> send got7 requests to [7fics](http://7fics.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> [Buy Me a Coffee](https://ko-fi.com/R6R27QMR)


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